Good Culture Requisite.

W. H. While In Country Gentleman.

Soils vary in different localities from a light sand to a compact clay, and require peculiar treatment in order to develop fully their capacity of production. No soil will support vegetation unless it contains the necessary elements which form the plants to be grown, and even then it will not support such vegetation unless the soil is in condition to impart freely those elements of nutrition; therefore we cultivate our soils. A soil may be filled with plant food and still be unproductive, owing to its mechanical condition being such that it cannot impart, or the plants cannot appropriate the plant food. Any soil, to demonstrate its full capacity for production, need to be finely pulverized to a good depth, and well mixed. No soil will show its full capacity by merely scratching its surface.

The laws which govern vegetation and growth are the same in every variety of soil, whatever the practices of farming and culture. The first requisite is always perfect seed, and as no plant can perfect itself without suitable soil, this would appear as the second essential. Any one of these essentials being deficient, vegetation and growth will be a partial or total failure. Such being the universal laws of plant growth, it will be readily seen what an important part intelligent, thorough culture bears in the production of good crops.